cobalt goodbyes
by luminescences
Summary: because to him, nothing is worse than watching Annie fall apart. / small odesta moments, some implied and some canon / review?


**Hope you like! (:**

**F**innick doesn't even hear her name completely. Just the beginning syllables of 'Anni-', and he is wide-eyed with fear while Mags attempts to calm him.

As Annie ambles up the stairs, her doe eyes immense, he can't look at her. He doesn't look at anyone; just his sandal clad feet, which are frantically shaking. It isn't until Annie and the other tribute are led into the Justice building that Finnick leaps to his feet and sprints to see her again, regardless that he is mentoring her.

Annie's father refuses to visit her, as he is still cooped up at the Cresta's house mourning over the death of Annie's mother who passed away just a month before. He doesn't even attend the Reaping; it's his daughter's last chance to be a tribute anyway.

So Annie is alone on the white couch, crouched into a ball with her head in her knees.

Finnick watches her from behind for a moment, tears already dripping from his eyes, and he whispers, "You're coming back."

"No. I won't. I don't stand a chance." she mutters, not even turning around.

"You're coming back," he raises his voice, because the statement is true. There was absolutely no way he was letting the Capital take her, even if her reaping wasn't a coincidence. "I'll make sure of it."

Now directly behind the couch, Finnick takes the chance to breathe in the scent of her lingering mint shampoo, and presses his lips, which are damp from his salty tears, against her hair.

Opening his mouth to tell her he loved her, Finnick is stopped by a Peacemaker barging in and prying him off the now screaming girl.

Before being shoved out of the room, he is able to holler one last phrase over Annie's shrieks.

"You're coming back, Ann!"

**T**here's deafening silence in the seconds that follow the Quarter Quell announcement. Annie is curled up in Finnick's arms, her head nestled in the crook of his neck, and she doesn't say anything.

"Annie?" his voice is trembling, she shouldn't be quiet right now; she shouldn't be staring off at the television in a blank, undirected stare. She shouldn't be cut off from the world like this.

Her arms suddenly start flailing, she's screaming so loud, _soloud, _and she won't respond to Finnick trying to hold her down and calm her. He hates seeing her like this.

Finnick wraps his arms as tightly as he can around her body, and soon her screeches lower to wracking sobs as she shrinks herself into him.

"Annie, darling-"

"Don't."

**T**he craze in his heart still surges, but a flicker of hope silences it. Annie could be okay; she has to be okay, or he hadn't been truly living the past few months in Thirteen. It would've all been for waste. Yet Finnick didn't know if he could handle her being bruised and beaten, suffered instead of immaculate. If there was one thing he knew, sometimes being gone but free overpowers agonized but alive.

And then a two pools of sea green lock with his, from across the crowded hospital hall. Snarled dark brown locks are swept messily to the side, and her frail body appears ever so thin. She looks as if she hasn't slept in days, but Finnick Odair had never seen Annie Cresta look so beautiful.

Wasting no time, he finds himself sprinting long strides just to get to her; that's all he needs to do right now. He sees Annie yank herself away from her medical inspector, and wrapped in only an linen ivory sheet, setting her sights on him. In no time, Finnick reaches her, wraps his arms around her slender shoulders and holds as tight onto her as he can. His head is nestled into the crook of her neck. Annie envelopes her arms around his waist and rests her plump rose lips against his neck. Their bodies, intertwined, tumble onto the floor and pressed against the wall, don't let go.

The two weep, side by side.

**A**nnie lies on the drab ash comforter, gazing at the ceiling and lightly fingering her ring, obvious to a sorrowful Finnick staring at her from across the undersized room.

"Why are you leaving me again?" She murmurs, glancing at her husband with her peripheral vision, "You promised you would never leave."

"I'm sorry, sweetheart-" he collapses into the bed next to her, "You know I don't have a choice."

Her voice is soft, it's usually quiet but more than normal at the moment, "What if you don't come back? I don't know what I would do."

"I will, baby," Finnick kisses her forehead, "I'll come back to you."

Little did he know the massive amounts of pain that would come from that statement, from the two of them.

**Review?**

**Lily**


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